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Abstract

Isle Royale is an outstanding example of relatively undisturbed northwoods lake wilderness. But more than simple preservation of such an environment is involved in its inclusion in our National Park System. Its isolation from the mainland provides an almost untouched laboratory for research in the natural sciences, especially those studies whose very nature depends upon such isolation.

One excellent example of such research is the intensive study of the predator-prey relationship of the timber wolf and moose, long sponsored by the National Park Service and Purdue University. In probably no other place in North America are the necessary ecological conditions for such a study so admirably fulfilled as on Isle Royale. The development of a natural laboratory with such conditions is ultimately dependent upon geologic processes and events that although not unique in themselves, produced in their interplay a unique result, the island archipelago as we know it today, with its hills and valleys, swamps and bogs the ecological framework of the plant and animal world.

Even the most casual visitor can hardly fail to be struck by the fiordlike nature of many of the bays, the chains of fringing islands, the ridge-and-valley topography, and the linear nature of all these features. The distinctive topography of the archipelago is, of course, only the latest manifestation of geologic processes in operation since time immemorial. Fragments of geologic history going back over a billion years can be read from the rocks of the island, and with additional data from other parts of the Lake Superior region, we can fill in some of the story of Isle Royale. After more than a hundred years of study by man, the story is still incomplete. But then, geologic stories are seldom complete, and what we do know allows a deeper appreciation of one of our most naturally preserved parks and whets our curiosity about the missing fragments.

Study Area

Additional publication details

Publication type

Report

Publication Subtype

USGS Numbered Series

Title

The geologic story of Isle Royale National Park

Series title

Bulletin

Series number

1309

DOI

10.3133/b1309

Year Published

1975

Language

English

Publisher

U.S. Government Printing Office

Publisher location

Washington, D.C.

Contributing office(s)

Michigan Water Science Center

Description

v, 66 p.

Country

United States

State

Michigan

Other Geospatial

Isle Royale National Park

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